Category Archives: Sepang (Malaysia)

The Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel will have to undergo changes before the Canadian Grand Prix after an important aerodynamic device that had been on the car since Malaysia was deemed illegal by the FIA.

Red Bull had been running with holes in the step plane of the floor. While other teams have used a similar device, they have been using slots to the edge of the floor; Red Bull’s holes are fully enclosed, and therefore illegal.

In an FIA directive issued to the teams on Friday, Charlie Whiting (FIA technical chief) said:

“It has been argued that, as it is not explicitly stated that fully enclosed holes cannot be located in a surface lying on the step plane rearward of a line 450mm forward of the rear face of the cockpit template, then they may be located in such areas.

“We disagree with this view and consider it implicit that fully enclosed holes may not be located there.”

There had been rumours of a protest after Mark Webber won the Monaco Grand Prix, but the teams preferred a clear resolution in time for Canada on 8-10 June.

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With rain spitting down as before the start the grid opted to start on the intermediate tyre, with the exception of the HRT pair who chose the full wets, meaning that the drivers do not need to use both the medium and hard tyre during the race. This was bad news for double world champion Sebastian Vettel who had gambled on the slower, but more durable hard tyre during qualifying.

The McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button sped away into the first corner, while Romain Grosjean climbed up to third place. His progress was hampered when he tangled with Michael Schumacher in Turn 4. As the rain started to pour down, Bruno Senna spun his Williams, while Perez made an early stop for the full wet tyre.

Meanwhile, Button was telling his team that his intermediate tyres were “Okay for now”, but di Resta, Massa, and Glock had pitted by the end of lap three.

Grosjean, who had dropped down the pack after the clash with Schumacher ended up in the gravel trap at Turn 8. The Frenchman had impressed in qualifying in both rounds so far, but would remain on zero points.

Button, Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg darted into the pits for wet tyres and it would not be long before the McLaren man overtook Schumacher, who was still on the intermediate tyre, easily.

By lap five Hamilton had built up a lead over Webber of 7.991 seconds. He then pitted, but was held up due to traffic in the pitlane as most of the field changed to wets. Red Bull pitted both of their cars, but Webber was far enough in front to not cost Vettel time.

With warmer tyres, Button closed in on leader Hamilton, nearly crashing into the back of his teammate before the rain turned into a thunderstorm and the safety car was deployed. Hamilton lead Button, Perez, Webber and Alonso, with Vettel down in sixth. Jean-Eric Vergne was running an impressive seventh as the only driver not to pit for wet tyres. The HRTs of Karthikeyan (10th) and de la Rosa (17th) had risen up the grid as a result of starting on the full wet tyre.

Two laps later the red flag came out and the race was stopped and out came the gazebos.

The race would eventually restart under the Safety Car, but it did not take long for the stewards to give Pedro de la Rosa a drive-through penalty for having a mechanic on the grid three minutes prior to the restart.

With all cars on full wet tyres the track started to dry out. When the Safety Car came in at the end of Lap 13, so to did Nico Rosberg, Kimi Raikkonen and Kamui Kobayashi – all switching to the intermediate tyre.

On lap fourteen, the was a Red Bull-fight as Sebastian Vettel pulled off a successful pass on Mark Webber through Turn 4. The German could not hold on to that position as Webber regained it soon after. Hamilton pitted for intermediates, but overshot his markers and suffered a slow stop as a result. Webber and Alonso also pitted leaving young Mexican Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez in the lead.

Shortly afterwards, Button lost half of his front wing attempting an ambitious lunge to overtake Narain Karthikeyan’s HRT. While Button may have been frustrated, it is also possible that he was expecting the HRT to move out of his way – not realising that he was challenging Karthikeyan for track position. Both cars pitted that lap for intermediates, Button also replacing his damaged front wing. While this was happening down the rear of the pack, Alonso had re-taken the lead from Perez.

With DRS enabled, Ricciardo and Senna made moves past Kobayashi. Fernando Alonso held a lead of 4.4seconds to Perez, but Button was having trouble getting his tyres working. With no grip the Englishman would soon pit for fresh intermediates, while attention turned to the battle for fourth between Rosberg, Vettel and Raikkonen.

Vettel would pass Rosberg into Turn 1 on lap twenty-three, running wide, but holding onto fourth place into Turn 2. A lap later, Raikkonen would push Rosberg further down the grid at the same corner. Alonso would extend his lead over Perez by setting a new fastest lap of 2:00.416, but with the weather improving, anything could happen.

Rosberg’s day continued to go badly on lap twenty-five as Webber passed in Turn 6, while Senna passed Schumacher in Turn 5 for twelfth place.

The under-pressure Ferrari of Felipe Massa would soon lose out to di Resta and Jean-Eric Vergne. Button set a fastest lap of 1:58.284 on lap twenty-seven, showing that the track was drying out and the intermediate tyre was the preferable option. With a gap of 6.6seconds, the question now would be who would blink first, Alonso or Perez?

With rain predicted on the radar, and tyres wearing out the race hung in the balance. Massa was looking for damp patches to cool his tyres, while Perez set a fastest lap of 1:55.772, soon followed by a 1:55.772. The gap to Alonso is down to 4.9seconds.

Alonso then responds with a 1:54.720, but Perez goes even faster, cutting the gap to 3.2 seconds on lap 37. Another fastest lap and the gap is 2.3 seconds.

Massa, Webber, Ricciardo, Hamilton and Button then pitted for the medium slicks, while Perez had closed the gap to Alonso to 1.3 seconds. Alonso pitted the next lap, again for medium slicks, but Perez stayed out – the Sauber team still unsure whether or not the rain would come.

When Perez darted into the pit lane a lap later, he opted for the harder of the dry compounds – a move that seemed strange at the time. Alonso re-took the lead, largely because he had one lap longer to heat his new tyres up. A flurry of fastest laps from Pastor Maldonado and Mark Webber would set the trend as the track dried, and the rain didn’t quite reach the circuit.

World Champion Sebastian Vettel suffered a left rear puncture when he attempted to lap Narain Karthikeyan. In what has become a customary trait of the young German, he did not leave enough room for the HRT man, and would later stoop to the low level of calling him an ‘idiot’.

In the meantime, Perez had closed the gap to 0.354 seconds on lap forty-nine when he was warned by his team not to throw away eighteen much-needed points in the battle for victory. However, the Mexican’s inexperience showed when he put two wheels on the kerb at Turn 14 and ran wide. Alonso would gain a five second gap as a result.

Although Perez would again close the gap to Alonso, that mistake would cost him the chance of a maiden victory.

Pos

Driver

Nat

Team

Position Change

Fastest Lap

Time

Pts

1.

Fernando Alonso

ESP

Ferrari

+7

1:41.680

2:44:51.812

25

2.

Sergio Perez

MEX

Sauber-Ferrari

+7

1:41.021

+00:02.263

18

3.

Lewis Hamilton

GBR

McLaren-Mercedes

-2

1:41.539

+00:14.591

15

4.

Mark Webber

AUS

Red Bull Racing-Renault

0

1:41.017

+00:17.688

12

5.

Kimi Raikkonen

FIN

Lotus-Renault

+5

1:40.722

+00:29.456

10

6.

Bruno Senna

BRA

Williams-Renault

+7

1:41.404

+00:37.667

8

7.

Paul di Resta

GBR

Force India-Mercedes

+7

1:41.819

+00:44.412

6

8.

Jean-Eric Vergne

FRA

Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari

+10

1:41.922

+00:46.985

4

9.

Nico Hulkenberg

GER

Force India-Mercedes

+7

1:42.173

+00:47.892

2

10.

Michael Schumacher

GER

Mercedes AMG

-7

1:41.760

+00:49.996

1

11.

Sebastian Vettel

GER

Red Bull Racing-Renault

-6

1:41.342

+01:15.527

12.

Daniel Ricciardo

AUS

Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari

+3

1:41.756

+01:16.828

13.

Nico Rosberg

GER

Mercedes AMG

-6

1:41.863

+01:18.593

14.

Jenson Button

GBR

McLaren-Mercedes

-12

1:42.100

+01:19.719

15.

Felipe Massa

BRA

Ferrari

-3

1:42.051

+01:37.319

16.

Vitaly Petrov

RUS

Caterham-Renault

+3

1:43.513

+ 1 lap

17.

Timo Glock

GER

Marussia-Cosworth

+3

1:44.757

+ 1 lap

18.

Heikki Kovalainen

FIN

Caterham-Renault

+6

1:43.803

+ 1 lap

19.

Pastor Maldonado

VEN

Williams-Renault

-8

1:42.237

DNF, lap 54

20.

Charles Pic

FRA

Marussia-Cosworth

+1

1:44.813

+ 2 laps

21.

Narain Karthikeyan

IND

HRT-Cosworth

+2

1:45.909

+ 2 laps

22.

Pedro de la Rosa

ESP

HRT-Cosworth

0

1:46.244

+ 2 laps

DNF

Kamui Kobayashi

JAP

Sauber-Ferrari

-6

1:44.202

DNF, lap 46

DNF

Romain Grosjean

FRA

Lotus-Renault

-18

2:08.464

DNF, lap 3

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Heikki Kovalainen will take a 5 place grid penalty after incident in Round 1.

Kimi Raikkonen will take a 5 place grid penalty after changing gearbox on Friday.

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For the latest news, follow The Pitstraight on Twitter (click here); like us on Facebook (click here); or subscribe to our email list. Alternatively, you can subscribe to our RSS feed (click here). Keep an eye out for The Pitstraight Podcast on iTunes and other podcasting software.

For the latest news, follow The Pitstraight on Twitter (click here); like us on Facebook (click here); or subscribe to our email list. Alternatively, you can subscribe to our RSS feed (click here). Keep an eye out for The Pitstraight Podcast on iTunes and other podcasting software.

For the latest news, follow The Pitstraight on Twitter (click here); like us on Facebook (click here); or subscribe to our email list. Alternatively, you can subscribe to our RSS feed (click here). Keep an eye out for The Pitstraight Podcast on iTunes and other podcasting software.

This week’s Tuesday video is a tribute to MotoGP star Marco Simoncelli, who lost his life in the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Firstly, here’s the MotoGP’s tribute to the charismatic Italian:

Here, Marco tries his hand at rallying with Jonathan Rea:

As a sidenote, it has been very hard to find YouTube footage that doesn’t involve Simoncelli’s fatal accident. If you have seen any good videos of Marco (or Dan Wheldon) then please share in the comments.

For the latest news, follow The Pitstraight on Twitter (click here); like us on Facebook (click here); or subscribe to our email list. Alternatively, you can subscribe to our RSS feed (click here). Keep an eye out for The Pitstraight Podcast on iTunes and other podcasting software.